The Lending Library

by Aliza Fogelson

Kendra shook her head vehemently, waking me out of my daydream. “Nope. Uh-uh.” “You mean not right now,” I clarified. “I don’t ever want to have kids.” “You just feel that way because you haven’t met the right person yet.”

No. Stop. Right now.

She wasn’t done. “I mean, all these people who assume I need a child to feel complete . . . doesn’t that say something about their marriages? Shouldn’t it be enough to be madly in love with your husband or wife?

I knew I’d have to get in there with an actual tape measure at some point, but tape measures are scary. Like mayonnaise or Rodents of Unusual Size. So for now, I drew.

Agreed on all accounts.

Some of them talked about how all the subjects’ eyes shone with a glee that can’t exist in a world where puppies are run over,

WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE EXIST IN THIS BOOK

Thinking about it made my cheeks glow like the windows of my beloved book-filled retreat, a shelter against lonely nights or difficult days for anyone who wanted to come inside.

Elizabeth accused Sullivan of being selfish for adopting an African child and said that people already saw her as different because she was a lesbian and that now she was going to make it even worse by choosing a child with a different skin color than hers.

.... Good thing Elizabeth isn't actually a character in this book.

Plus Mark said our appendix is an evolutionary vestige. Apparently, our toes are obsolete too, but I’m not about to give those up.

Toes are certainly not obsolete.

I couldn’t read the expression on Jefferson Hendrow’s face, but I was curious about what he was thinking. “Would you like to take a closer look?” I handed him the book. He flipped to the page with the little boy, Peter, and his mother. “This looks like me and my mama.” I realized he’d never seen a book before with anyone in it that looked like him.

<3

“You all right?” Jeff asked, patting me on the back. I nodded but couldn’t look him in the eye. I had done a terrible job. I had failed. Terabithia would never become president now.

Wow, that was some surprising anatomical detail for a third-grade art project. These kids obviously had access to films that I hadn’t at their age. Or nudist colonies.